Pure Oil

Although we celebrate with full gusto the miracle of the Chanukah oil every year and mark the spectacular victory of the Maccabean army over the Greeks, we would be foolish to think that the battle of the Jews against the Greeks is an ancient tale that has no bearing on our present day lives. In fact, I would argue that the Chanukah story is the defining struggle of our times.

Indeed, Leo Strauss, the great 20th century political philosopher, suggests that the tension between Biblical theology and Greek philosophy is the essence of western civilisation. In a thought provoking article entitled The Mutual Influence of Theology and Philosophy Strauss argues that Biblical theology and Greek philosophy are in conflict with each other and that no one can be both a theologian and a philosopher or be beyond that conflict or somehow effect a synthesis of both. Since for a philosopher, 'there can never be an absolute sacredness of a particular or contingent event'.

In fact, the chronicling of the story of Chanukah in the traditional texts makes the very same point, albeit in a more subtle way.

The Talmud states: "When the Assyrian Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oil that was to be found there. And when the royal Hasmonean House overcame and defeated them, they searched [for oil] but found only one flask that was imprinted with the seal of the High Priest."

It begs the question, why did the Greeks 'defile' the oil and not just destroy it? it seems that their intention was to specifically blemish the oil and render it impure. However, if they were so nuanced in their understanding of Jewish ritual laws they would have surely known that in a circumstance of pervasive impurity even impure oil may be used in the Temple.

The Talmudic account of the Chanukah story contains within it the backdrop of a seemingly eternal conflict that has yet to be resolved.

In both Talmudic and Kabbalistic texts oil is symbolic of wisdom and intellect, which in our context would be the wisdom of the Torah. The need for pure oil in the Temple service means, homiletically speaking, that the Torah must be kept pure. Pure Torah signifies a Torah and Mitzvot that can be fulfilled with intellectual and emotional participation and at the same time with the knowledge that its is G-d's Torah and it is only His command and His will that serve as the basis for the fulfilment of it.

The Greeks were willing to allow the Jews to light the menorah but they wanted a menorah that would burn with the light of man. They accepted that the Torah was a book of profound, enriching, ideas. What they objected to was pure oil, they found reprehensible the idea that the Torah is G-d's Torah whose real essence defies understanding. They could not respect nor tolerate the concept of supra-rational commandments such as purity and impurity, or in the words of Strauss, for there to be an "absolute sacredness."